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Take a minute and pull up Google.

Go ahead, do it. Is it up? Okay, now type in your first and last name and hit enter. What pops up?

A lot, right? Links to your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, along with many more. If you look at the images, is your face in there? A nice embarrassing picture that survived from your MySpace?

It’s scary to think about, isn’t it?

Anyone that knows your name can look you up and know a lot about you before even getting a chance to talk to you.

THAT’S CRAZY!

But that’s what today is all about. January 28^th is Data Privacy Day.

Did you know that even when you take a picture using a device like an iPhone it saves your location and the date it was taken? That when you snap a shot your phone records the data and if you upload it to Facebook or Instagram it uses your location to help track them?

That’s how you can find your pictures on Google.

Bellwood-Antis senior Angelee McAlkich wasn’t hesitant in admitting to having looked herself up.

“Yeah, I Googled myself before but I’ve never found anything embarrassing or scary,” she said.

Why doesn’t it scare you to know so much of your life is online?

“Okay—when you put it that way it is kind of scary to think of. Especially ‘cause I have old profiles like MySpace that I never get on, but it’s still active.”

Exactly. The key word here is active. All those old sites that you still have up from when you were a young, naïve child that thought posting a status about the cold, dark world was cool.

Yeah, that’s still alive on the internet and anyone that wants to see it, can.

Unless of course you happen to have the same name as a famous person like sophomore Josh Swope. When he googles himself nothing but links to a Texas A&M football player pop up.

“I’m kind of relieved to think that people can get my information through Google—that means they aren’t waiting outside my window and are just using the internet,” Josh said.

Okay, that kind of makes sense if you think about it.

Senior Avery Parshall wasn’t really bothered by it either.

“It doesn’t really bother me to think about. I mean, if I really, really think about it then it might mess with me but that goes for everything. It’s a 50/50.”

But that might only be because when he Googled himself nothing popped up. Absolutely nothing.